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QUETTA: Several villages have reportedly been flooded while many susceptible houses have received damages due to breakage in the Damani Dam caused by stormy rains here in Barkhan area of Balochistan province late on Wednesday, Geo news reported.

The former provincial minister Balochistan Sardar Abdul Rehman Kethran told Geo news the stormy downpours started to fall from early Wednesday and remained falling for several hours, causing breakage in Damani Dam and leaving many villages flooded.

The affectees have started migration to seek refuge to safer places while many vulnerable houses have also been adversely affected due to unabated fain fall, he added.

No loss of life has been reported thus far, he concluded.
The NEWS

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani called on Dr Aafia Siddiqui at a New York detention center and advised her to appoint a defense counsel.

Siddiqui is charged with trying to kill American interrogators in Afghanistan. Her last hearing was on July 6 to determine if she is mentally fit to stand trial.

Siddiqui is a 37-year-old US-trained neuroscientist who the U.S. government says has suspected links to al Qaeda.

Prosecutors say Siddiqui grabbed a US warrant officer’s rifle in mid-2008 while she was detained for questioning in Afghanistan and fired it at the interrogation team, which included two FBI agents, but no one was hit. The warrant officer then shot her with his pistol.

Siddiqui was transferred to the United States and charged with attempted murder and assault of U.S. soldiers. She has pleaded not guilty and no one has been able to verify her whereabouts for the five years before her arrest.

Ambassador Haqqani also assured her of his government’s support. SAMAA

NEW DELHI: Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people in November, pleaded guilty in a Mumbai court on Monday.

“Yes, he has pleaded guilty in court today for the November attacks during a hearing,” said Rakesh Maria, a senior police officer, overseeing the probe into the Mumbai attacks.

Kasab had pleaded not guilty in May to 86 charges against him, including murder and waging war against India. AGENCIES
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LONDON: Pakistan spinners restricted Sri Lanka to 150 for seven after openers blasted 55 in five overs in the first match of Group F in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup here at Lord’s on Friday.

After Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first, their openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillekaratne Dilshan smashed 81 runs from just nine overs but as soon Younis Khan introduced spinners wickets began to fell at regular intervals.

First Jayasuriya went for 26 after hitting a six and two fours. Then Dilshan was bowled for 46, the highest score of the innings. Both became victims of Shahid Afridi.

Dilshan made 46 from 39 balls with eight fours.

Spinners Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal, and pacer Umar Gul bagged two wickets each for 23, 26 and 34 runs, respectively.

Nuwan Kulasekera replaced Udana for Sri Lanka while Pakistan are unchanged.

Pakistan team
Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Aamer, Sohail Tanvir

Sri Lanka team
TM Dilshan, ST Jayasuriya, KC Sangakkara, DPMD Jayawardene, J Mubarak, LPC Silva, AD Mathews, KMDN Kulasekara, BAW Mendis, SL Malinga, M Muralitharan.
Sri Lanka win toss, bat against Pakistan
LONDON: Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has won the toss and decided to bat first against Pakistan in their first match in the Super Eights stage of the World Twenty20 here at Lord’s on Friday.
LONDON: Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has won the toss and decided to bat first against Pakistan in their first match in the Super Eights stage of the World Twenty20 here at Lord’s on Friday.

Nuwan Kulasekera has replaced Udana for Sri Lanka. Abdul Razzaq is not playing as Pakistan are unchanged.

Sri Lanka: Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (captain/wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekera, Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan

Pakistan: Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan (captain), Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal.
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TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — Iranian voters began casting ballots Friday in a colorful and passionate presidential election pitting incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Mir Hossein Moussavi, the leading reformist candidate.
The polls opened at 8 a.m. local time and will stay open for 10 hours, but that time could be extended.

Raucous, lively political rallies filled the streets of Tehran as the campaign season officially ended Thursday.

The streets were quiet late Thursday as posters bearing the faces of the top candidates were torn down, and graffiti proclaiming “Change, Change, Change” was washed away.

It was a strange contrast to the scene in Tehran a day before when tens of thousands of Iranians took part in the final rallies on Wednesday. Most of the rallies were in support of Moussavi.

As far as the eye could see, people walked for hours from east of the city to the west, converging on Tehran’s Freedom Square, which became the symbol of the Islamic revolution that swept this country back in 1979.

There were some Ahmadinejad supporters taking part in the rallies, but most donned the color green which is the symbol of Moussavi’s campaign.

The Moussavi supporters stayed out well past the midnight deadline, dancing, chanting, driving and honking their horns. The rallies were largely peaceful. At one point, police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, but the situation did not get out of control.

People who are old enough to remember the Islamic revolution 30 years ago say this week’s rallies in the capital were the largest they had seen since then.

Moussavi has energized Iran’s women and young people, and his supporters hope that will be enough to sweep him to victory.

But much of his support is coming from those frustrated with Ahmadinejad’s four years in office, during which prices of goods have skyrocketed and personal freedoms have plummeted.

“Thirty years of frustration is exploding,” said Mohamed, a mechanical engineering student who took part in Wednesday’s march to Freedom Square. “Even if Ahmadinejad wins, we are here just to express our opposition.”

The Iranian president still has staunch support especially among the poor in the provinces to whom he has doled out money, benefits and favors.

“Honestly, we have never seen anyone as courageous as Ahmadinejad,” said one of his supporters, who took part in this week’s rallies. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour reports emotions on the street »

Moussavi’s supporters hope that he follows in the same footsteps as Mohammed Khatami, a reformist candidate who overwhelmingly won the presidency in 1997, raising hopes that the reformist movement would bring religious and democratic freedoms to the Islamic republic. But the real power in Iran rests in the hands of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameni.
By the time Khatami left office in 2005, he was unable to make major changes due to the opposition of hardline elements in Iran’s clerical establishment.
Iranian-American analyst and scholar Reza Aslan said that while Moussavi is “a little bit more of a moderate when it comes to the nuclear issue … all four candidates agreement with Iran’s right to develop nuclear.”

Nevertheless, Aslan said that all four candidates also “recognize it’s time to open up to America and to the international community because there’s no other option with regard to the economy.”

“But I think with Moussavi you have someone that I think would be more palatable for a Barack Obama to sit down next to,” he told CNN’s “American Morning.”

The U.S. president has indicated his willingness to open dialogue with Iran — something his predecessor was unwilling to do. But talks with the incumbent Iranian president are more likely to trigger criticism because of Ahmadinejad’s controversial statements, including his repeated denial of the Holocaust and his comments about wiping Israel off the map.
Aslan predicted that Moussavi will emerge victorious after Friday’s vote because of his ability to energize key segments of Iran’s population.
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Assault his buildings as ugly and ostentatious. Gossip about his fortunes. Criticize “The Apprentice.” Pick at the hair. (You know you love to hate the hair.)

But love him, loathe him, try to forget about him, he’s Donald Trump, and he will prevail — in the media, if not always in the hearts of his countrymen.

Consider the latest entry in the very public life of America’s most public billionaire. On Wednesday, Carrie Prejean, better known as Miss California USA and the runner-up in the Trump-owned Miss USA pageant, was summarily dismissed from her post, which she was allowed to keep at a much-watched Trump news conference just last month
Though few Americans watch beauty pageants, and probably even fewer can name the actual Miss USA (it’s Kristen Dalton, if you want to know), the tale of the beauty queen and the billionaire somehow captured the public’s imagination.
Even if Prejean played no small part in the proceedings — it was her response to a pageant question about same-sex marriage that launched her into the media frenzy — score another win for the shrewd Trump, who brought more attention to the pageant he owns.
The real estate magnate may have a talent in cutting deals, but The Donald’s real prowess is in publicity. He’s a regular in the New York media, which reports breathlessly on his social life (and occasionally on his business life). He’s leveraged his name for a TV show, a clothing line, a host of high-rent skyscrapers and occasionally dabbles in public affairs. His “Apprentice” message to cut contestants, “You’re fired,” became a catchphrase.
Sometimes all the hubbub glorifies him: He made the cover of the New York Post during a very public (of course) affair with an actress — Marla Maples, later his wife — with the Maples-quoted headline, “Best sex I ever had.”

Other times it makes him look petty. Trump had a running battle with the bible of boom-and-bust fin de siecle New York, Spy magazine, which regularly referred to him as a “short-fingered vulgarian” and delighted in his missteps.

“He would send us these letters … on this stationery you could kill a duck with,” Spy co-founder Kurt Andersen told CNN.com in 2006. “It was amazing. He was perfect. [It] was like Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty — we needed each other.”

The Trump media chronicles are long and circuitous, but they’re usually sustained by three things: Trump’s money, Trump’s women and Trump’s feuds.

The feuds, in particular, are many.

Aside from Spy, Trump has famously battled with Rosie O’Donnell and Martha Stewart, not to mention a variety of politicians and journalists. After O’Donnell criticized him as a “snake-oil salesman” following his retention of Miss USA Tara Conner (again with the controversial beauty queens!), Trump told People magazine, “Rosie’s a loser. A real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie.” Though the dispute eventually calmed down, it was never really settled.

As for Stewart, Trump lashed out at his friend over the performance of Stewart’s “Apprentice.” “I knew it would fail as soon as I first saw it — and your low ratings bore me out,” he said.

Trump also has constantly questioned the value Forbes magazine assigns to his fortune. When the magazine, in its annual list of the world’s wealthiest people, gave his 2008 net worth as $3 billion, he shot back, “I’m worth $7 billion.”

And then there’s the pageant business. Trump owns the Miss Universe pageant, parent of Miss USA. Though ratings have been uneven in the U.S., pageants are still popular in other countries, giving Trump an edge over competitor Miss America. (He planted a knife, defending his NBC-aired pageant’s “tough questions” during last month’s Prejean news conference: “We don’t want to be in a position that Miss America is in that they’re now on a small cable channel.”)

In late 2006, after reports arose of Conner’s drinking and possible dethronement, Trump stood by her: “I’ve always been a believer in second chances,” he said at a news conference.

Similarly, Trump defended Prejean after her outspokenness and some racy pictures — before approving her departure Wednesday. Interestingly, the axing was handled quietly: There was no news conference, and Prejean and her attorney said they were caught off guard.

Not everyone likes the media crush Trump brings with him. Maples, in particular, tried her best to avoid it. “The press coverage was a destructive force in my life. It was destructive to our relationship. It was like a fire,” she told New York magazine.

Trump, on the other hand, has no problem playing with matches.
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Karan Johar, presently busy shooting for My Name is Khan, has already locked on his next film as director. Reports say that Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan have agreed to be a part of Karan’s project. There is no doubt in the fact that Karan is fond of both Ranbir and Imran. In fact, he loved their act at an awards function this year. It seems the two have great personal chemistry that could translate well on the big screen.

It is learnt that the film will be in the vein of Hollywood hit High School Musical. Both Imran and Ranbir play their age and it will be a yuppie romantic drama.
It seems Deepika Padukone and Sonam Kapoor are the two actresses being considered to play the roles opposite Ranbir and Imran.
Hope…we get to see all four together on-screen soon.
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Ram Gopal Varma has always been on the hot seat, everything he does turns out to be a controversy. However even after much flak RGV is in no mood to give up! Ramu is now making India’s first 3D horror film titled simply - Warning!Although he is still fighting for Jana Gana Mana Rann in the tribunal, RGV is already busy casting for this movie. Ritiesh Deshmukh was the first one to step on board.

“If you think you have experienced everything there is to experience in fear, just wait for Warning. It’s a horror film in 3D that gives an extraordinary experience of an extremely heightened sense of realism.” Says RGV. “This sense of realism is something only 3D can create. The best possible application of this form of realism is possible only in a horror film.” RGV wants the viewers to feel what it is to be in the horror movie and not simply watch it.
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Mumbai: Salman Khan was at his humourous best on the sets of his forthcoming TV show 10 Ka Dum as he bonded with his star contestants Karisma Kapur and Kareena Kapoor. Known for his dedication to his fitness regime, Salman had some words of advice for Kareena, who has lost a lot of weight in the past in her bid to flaunt an eye-popping figure.
“Be careful not to lose too much weight. Men like women with some weight,” he told Kareena, adding, “Women who lose too much weight begin to look hard in the face and that’s not attractive. Don’t stand in front of a fan. You might just fly away.”

Kareena just sportingly flaunted a smile. Salman then went a step ahead to first compliment Karisma and then commented at her near-perfect figure. Salman and Karisma have a long list of flop films together and he had no qualms listing them all in front of the audiences too. Jokingly he told the audience, “One film with me turned her career — she became a big star.”
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NEW YORK: Angelina Jolie has dethroned Oprah Winfrey as the world’s most powerful celebrity, according to Forbes.

The actress grabbed the No. 1 spot from the talk show queen on the magazine’s annual Celebrity 100 list, which ranks the rich and famous based on media exposure and career earnings over the past year.

Jolie, a reigning tabloid fixture, earned $27 million, bumping her up from third place on last year’s list, Forbes said, adding that she wields more power due to high-profile turns in hit films such as “Wanted” and “Kung Fu Panda.”

At No. 2, Winfrey is still the highest earner — $275 million.

Madonna came in third, trailed by Beyonce, Tiger Woods, Bruce Springsteen and Steven Spielberg.

Two other celebs tied up in Jolie’s tabloid universe — Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt — came in at eighth and ninth place, respectively.

Tenth place goes to Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, thanks in part to endorsement deals scored after the Beijing Olympics.

About halfway down the list sits a very familiar face: President Barack Obama. At No. 49, Obama’s the first sitting head of state to appear on this Forbes fixture because of his worldwide fame, his historic election and his career as a best-selling author.

Newcomers to the list: Alec Baldwin (No. 91); Meryl Streep (No. 64); Toby Keith (No. 59); Rascal Flatts (No. 42); TV host Glenn Beck (No. 81); and teen singing superstar Taylor Swift (No. 69).

Although he’s one of the biggest acts in entertainment, Justin Timberlake went from 12th to falling off the list completely, since ending his lucrative “FutureSex/LoveShow” concert tour.

Jennifer Lopez, Johnny Depp and Tyra Banks also dropped off the list.
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